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Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns is leading the U.S. delegation.
AP Photo

What the Iranians want: Presumably, to split the international coalition from a unified position, as well as any indication from the U.S. or its allies that there would be a willingness to negotiate some level of continued uranium enrichment program.

“They want to make sure they keep their enrichment program,” says the National Iranian American Council’s Trita Parsi. “They want to make sure they get continuous dialogue with the U.S. And they want recognition [of their role] in the region. And they want elimination of an external threat" -- some sort of guarantee from the U.S. that they won’t be attacked.

What to look for: “If anything happens, it will not happen in the first four hours of meetings,” said former veteran U.S. National Security Council Iran hand Gary Sick, who noted Geneva was a past favorite destination for Iranians to hold such international meetings. “I assume all seven [country] attendees will have to make a speech, which will take half a day. …. With 49 people sitting around a room, listening to each other’s speeches, the first part is going to be incredibly boring and useless. But at some point, someone is going to have to suggest … either ‘Let’s break this off’ or ‘We would like to explore further the possibility of any accommodation on this.’ And indicate they are prepared to do x,y, z. if the other side does something. And Iran says ‘yes, OK, let’s have another conversation and go into that area that we’d like to explore.’”

Sick suggested that a likely attempt will be made in the talks to get Iran to agree to a “freeze for freeze” formulation, whereby the P5+1 group would agree to freeze further sanctions on Iran, in return for Iran agreeing to freeze bringing more centrifuges online. This is likely to be an end goal of a series of negotiations but not likely to be an outcome of the first meeting, one U.S. official indicated.

A past Bush-era iteration of freeze for freeze called for Iran to freeze all existing uranium enrichment in exchange for the P5+1 agreeing to freeze all existing sanctions. That may be more difficult to do, Sick judged: “There are different levels of trade-offs.”

Wild card: Negotiations lasting beyond the one-day talks, as well as side negotiations between less visible members of delegations that take place beyond the view of the one-day plenary meeting. The Intercontinental, where the delegation will be staying, is within walking distance of the Iranian mission to the U.N. in Geneva, Sick noted.

Prospects for a breakthrough: Unlikely, says former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas R. Burns. The Obama administration is “right to go ahead with this meeting,” Burns, now a lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, told POLITICO. “If the talks end up making progress, which I think is unlikely, that is positive for the U.S. to make progress without having to resort to additional sanctions or force.”

“If the talks fail, which I assume they will, because of the Iranians,” Burns continued, “then I think President Obama will be in a stronger position internationally to argue for stronger sanctions.” He told NPR Wednesday he thinks the talks process would probably collapse within a month.

“If the talks fail, which I assume they will, because of the Iranians,” Burns continued, “then I think President Obama will be in a stronger position internationally to argue for stronger sanctions.”

Of course he hopes they will fail since his warmongering administration was such a failure. The basic problem here is not addressing why Israel is so hated by all these countries, ie it's illegal occupations and persecutions. It is to perpetuate these heinous Israeli policies that we are continually dragged into all these wars. A better solution is to address the underlying problem and push for a comprehensive Middle East peace.

Can someone confirm something for me? Did not France and Germany supply material to help Iran start up their nuclear program for energy purposes only? I thought I remembered that this took place during the time when sanctions had been imposed on Iran and France and Germany were trying to conceal their involvement and then defended themselves saying Iran had a right to have nuclear for energy purposes only.

57 nations don't recognize Israel because Israel is in violation of international law, UN Security Council Resolutions and the Geneva Convention with its illegal occupations, persecutions, war crimes, etc.

Usually the Sunday TV talk shows dwell on tangential issues but on 4/26/09 they cut to the core. Jordan's King Abdullah II told David Gregory on NBC's Meet the Press that by connecting the dots we can see that all our major foreign policy problems lead back to the Israeli occupations. Until this core issue is solved there will always be instability in the region. Gregory exclaimed in surprise that most Americans believe the core issue is terrorism and al Qaeda. (Of course that's what most Americans believe since that's what the Israel Lobby-dominated media feed them.)

Abdullah pointed out that al Qaeda extremists are able to recruit and expand their numbers primarily because of the Israeli occupation and plight of the Palestinians. (Of course there will always be a few power-hungry radicals, but their power depends on their ability to recruit adherents. Timothy McVeigh, for instance, would have been much harder to isolate and capture if he had been able to recruit an army of followers. We did not need to launch an all-out military offensive to bring him to justice.)

Asked about Iran, Abdullah again said "connect the dots." It all leads to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and occupation of Jerusalem. He noted that 57 nations (one-third of the UN) do not recognize Israel for this reason. If this core issue were resolved, Iran would no longer be a problem. He of course opposes an Israeli attack on Iran.

Meanwhile on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," Iranian President Ahmadinejad again said that whatever the Palestinians decide in the way of a peace agreement with Israel "is fine with us." Iran would accept a two-state solution that was supported by the Palestinian people. (So all the scare tactics the Israel Lobby uses to push us to war with Iran are lies. Iran and the rest of the 57 nations which do not recognize Israel would do so if Israel would abide by UN Security Council resolutions and end the illegal occupations. The Israel Lobby prefers war with 57 nations.)

He noted that 57 nations (one-third of the UN) do not recognize Israel for this reason.

Is this the same 57 Obama got stuck on during the election?

Seriously, the 57 members that do not recognize Israel. Interesting. You're not misinterpreting the relevance of the statement, perchance.

So the result or consequence of the Imam's statement, which resides originally with Khomeni, is that now 57 states do not recognize Israel. Is that out of fear, solidarity, or individual country agreement? Roll dem bones and take your chance - you'll never know until you trace the growth in "agreement" over the past 60+ years.

Does that include the PLO ?

Here are a few of the 57. Zero Diplomatic relations? Economic relations/sanctions? Consistency? Try primary sources, rather than

You know I feel sorry for the US negiotiating team. They work such an inept, weak leader who surpassed Neville Chabmerlain in his capability to appease that he's a shame to the US. I just wonder how they'll take to being laughed at to their faces.

Dundee, you're so anti Israel that one would take you for Bin Laden's cheerleader. I guess nazism is alive and well in the Democratic party. Be careful Dummy, you may get the US Jews and all their money to go to the RNC.

As for you Mchugh, I defended you against dred neck. He said you aren't worth his dog's poop. I disagreed and said you barely were.

Dundee, you're so anti Israel that one would take you for Bin Laden's cheerleader. I guess nazism is alive and well in the Democratic party. Be careful Dummy, you may get the US Jews and all their money to go to the RNC.

As for you Mchugh, I defended you against dred neck. He said you aren't worth his dog's poop. I disagreed and said you barely were.

Barry obama has already said he will NOT IMPOSE harsher sanctions he wants to talk one on one but Iran said 'you can't talk to us about the nukes" go barry...what a fool this man is..if he would stop campaigning and take that chip off his shoulder and his arrogant attitude he might wake up to the real world...doubt it he isn't smart enough..liar liar pants on fire

Barry obama has already said he will NOT IMPOSE harsher sanctions he wants to talk one on one but Iran said 'you can't talk to us about the nukes" go barry...what a fool this man is..if he would stop campaigning and take that chip off his shoulder and his arrogant attitude he might wake up to the real world...doubt it he isn't smart enough..liar liar pants on fire

In an op-ed in The New York Times (9/13/09) entitled "Land First, Then Peace," Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal explains well the Arab position on the Israeli occupation. This position is based on justice and fairness.

Since 1967, Israel has illegally occupied Palestine and parts of Syria and Lebanon. The occupations and colonization (settlements) are in violation of international law, UN Security Council Resolutions and the Geneva Convention. For this reason, numerous nations do not recognize Israel, and for that matter, neither does Hamas. Hamas has been criticized for this, but it is important to note that Israel's ruling Likud Party Charter expressly opposes a Palestinian State in Palestine.

The Saudi prince writes, "The Arab world, in the form of the Arab peace initiative that was endorsed by 22 countries in 2002, has offered Israel peace and normalization in return for Israeli withdrawal from all Arab territories including East Jerusalem---with the refugee issue to be solved later through mutual consent."

This Arab plan is exceedingly generous since Israel gets 78% of Palestine, whereas the original 1947 UN partition divided Palestine roughly equally into a Jewish state and an Arab state, with Jerusalem left as an international city since it is holy to three religions. Palestinian President Arafat accepted this Arab peace initiative in in 2002, but the Israelis prefer continuous occupation out of greed for Palestinian land, water resources, etc. as the Jewish settlements keep growing and metastasizing.

The Israelis of course want creeping normalization without ever having to give up any land, and thus the Arab states are being pressured to make concessions. The prince is correct to just say no.

Talks with Iran need to go on for months while people get to know each other, not for a day or two,

If the US has secret information about nuclear weapons prototypes in design and fabrication stages it should be revealed. Right now it is still hype - whether there are one, two, or ten ultracentrifuge plants for separating uranium isotopes.

Weaponization and mating to a missile cone and missile is not a simple matter of a flight test.

Germany, France, and Russia rushed to help Iran to build nuclear reactors and fuel processing facilities. Theycould take the iranian program apart if they wanted to. But they are rushing to sign deals to build 40 more nuclear power plants in the most unstable countries in Africa and Arabia. Big money to make. Big trouble to follow.

It is against the UN Charter for Arab states not to recogniize Israel as a "peace-loving" member state of the United Nations.

The states that refused to recognize Israel should not have been admitted to the UN and they have continue to violate Security Council Resolution 232 calling for Israel to have safe borders and freedom from threat and attack.

Palestinians could have accpeted partition and applied to be a UN member state 60 years ago, But they chose war. The have not applied to the Security Council to become a member state and they would not meet the criteria for acceptance by the Security Council since they still call for war, carry out war, and refuse to accept Israel as a non-Islamic state.

The US has no mutual defense treaty with Israel so it is weak argument to quote Saudi Princes, Bin Laden, and his deputies as sources to clarify the Arab Israeli conflict. The Arab Israeli conflict continuer while Jordan occupied the West bank from 1947 to 1967. But Arabs didn't want a Palestinian state. They wanted to expel the Jewish settlers.

Dundee is for ethnic cleansing of Jewish familiies who have moved acros the arbitrary and discredited British Partition lines of 1947. But even the Partition plan says Jews should be able to live anywhere throughout Palestine and enjoy full civil and religious rights.

The Arab military conquest of Spain, the Arab military conquest of India... Islam expands and causes violence from Africa to Indonesia. It has never been a peace-loving culture. So it is great propaganda to reverse the truth and accuse others of opposing peace. Blow your own children up with suicide bombs targeting civilians.

Partition was a bad idea for Indian. Forced movements of populations is a bad idea. Dundee wants the ethnically cleanse Jews from Biblical Judea to make way for a Jewish -cleansed future Palestinian state. It is 60 years too late. Jews learned their lessons in Lebanon and Gaza. No more ethnic cleansing. Accept the reality on the ground and make the best of it.

While Dundees maps show only the post-intifada Palestinian autonomous areas where Israelis stay out- except yo intrrupt terrorist plans - there is twice as much land in the West Bank that is Palestinian controlled, But keep up the propaganda war for anothe 60 years an the Iraeli economy will grow out to the Jordan River an back.

Palestinians are building the Jewish settlement. Abbas is powerless to make a deal, Jews won't give up Jerusalem. Descendants of Palestinians living over seas cannot be less radical, Only the Saudis can negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians - but they must recognize Israel, cut off funding the Palestinian welfare state, and give Israel real interest satsifaction -- like money in the tens of trillions for any concessions.

Russia, Germany, France, the United States and Israel could drop cell phones from the sky, put up new satellites over Iran and land special forces to destroy every Iranian nuclear facility. Drop credit cards in poor areas and it won't be hard to destroyeach Iranian facility - especially with the blueprints.

Ahmadinejad is still gloating about the special forces failure to rescue the US hostages in Iran thirty years ago - in a bad sandstorm. We can do the job right this time without aerial bombardment. Its a matter of money, planning and cooperation. It Obama can pay France, Russia, and China enough to cooperate he'll be a new hero on the scale of Chengis Kahn.